The Ashcroft campaign says Mr Carnahan is a raging socialist, guilty of campaign-finance scandals and soft on crime (he once agreed to the pope's request to commuteadeathsentence).
Mr Straw's most recent intervention was on 30 January when he contacted the chairman of the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole to urge them to commute the deathsentence to a prison term and reiterate Britain's opposition to capital punishment.